Too Many Police (Agencies)

I am amazed at the number of law enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction over where I live. It's sometimes difficult to find out exactly what they all do. With apologies to Mike Judge, I'm going to use 'Arlan, TX' from his King of the Hill series to illustrate my point.

City of Arlan Police Department - OK, this is a no brainer. Your normal Police Department with normal functions. Ticket revenue goes to the city.

Allas County Sheriff's Department - County wide jurisdiction, main purpose is to serve as the police department for unincorporated areas. However, they have jurisdiction within city limits for anything they want to get involved with. Ticket revenue goes tot he sheriff's department.

Allas County Constables - Allas County has a series of Constables, who are elected officials that run their own private police departments. They are supposed to be involved with County Courts, serving warrants etc., but also have their own traffic enforcement division, which has jurisdiction anywhere in the County. Ticket revenue goes to the individual Constable offices.

City of Arlan City Marshals - a small force of officers who serve the City Courts, serving warrants, etc. I don't think they do any traffic enforcement.

Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS, Highway Patrol). Statewide jurisdiction for man law enforcement tasks, most notably traffic enforcement on highways. They have jurisdiction on any highways located in the city/county. Ticket revenue goes to the local Justice of the Peace court.

All of these folks running around in uniforms, marked (and unmarked) squad cars, all of them armed. With all the uniformed presence, we ought to be the safest community on earth. There are so many, that one Arlan police officer told me they had races with the Constables to see who could stake out the best speed trap spots first each day.

Now, this doesn't take into consideration other statewide and federal enforcement agencies.

I can only imagine how well protected we would be if these competing jurisdictions were combined, eliminating the duplicate overhead and management structure - not to mention how much taxpayer money would be saved. There is no reason for a seperate marshal's office - should be part of the city police. No reason at all for constables, they should be part of the sheriff's department.